Name: Pot-au-Feu
Ingredients: 6 pounds beef (bones included), cut into 2 or 3 pieces; ¾ pound mixed vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, leeks, white cabbage, celery), cut into good-sized pieces; 3 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon sugar; 8 pints water; Crusts of rolls or slices of bread (toasted or plain)

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot-au-Feu

Ingredients

6 pounds beef (bones included), cut into 2 or 3 pieces
¾ pound mixed vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, leeks, white cabbage, celery), cut into good-sized pieces
3 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
8 pints water
Crusts of rolls or slices of bread (toasted or plain)

Directions

Make the broth

In a large saucepan, combine the beef and water.
Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 3 hours.
Skim off the fat from the surface.

Add the vegetables and finish

Add the mixed vegetables, salt, pepper, and sugar.
Continue to simmer for an additional hour.
Add the bread crusts or slices just before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,046 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together897 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides rich flavour and tender meat as it simmers slowly in the broth.
Mixed vegetables: Release sweetness and aroma into the broth as they cook.
Bread crusts: Add body and soak up some of the broth when added near serving.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat from the surface. Fat that is left in the broth can make it greasy and cloudy. Removing it after the initial simmer keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, leek, cabbage, celery, pepper):

Parsnipfits better
Lettucefits better
Beetrootfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, leek, cabbage, celery, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Pot-au-Feu

Pot-au-Feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

Add the vegetables and finish

Explore the science

The flavor team

What each ingredient does

The step that matters

Swap the onion

More pot-au-feu recipes

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